were also King Penguins, Pelicans, Puffins, and several other series on the
way. Tschichold annotated every item with his criticisms in pencil. These
comments, circulated to editorial staff before he arrived, were a
typographical education in themselves.

His task when he arrived was formidable. The standards of composition in
English printing-houses were, he found, much lower than in Switzerland.
‘The printers who set the type either had no composition rules at all, or
worked to nineteenth-century conventions, or followed one set or another of
house rules.’ One of the first things he did was to write Penguin
Composition Rules, a four-page leaflet now famous and of crucial
importance (see pp. 80-1). He had endless trouble with the hand-compositors
who worked on title pages: ‘They simply could not understand what I meant
by “Capitals must be letter-spaced”.’ Many printers tried to rebel; but if, as
happened, they argued with Tschichold, he produced a bland smile and
could not understand English. He was the boss.

An argument once occurred with an author. Dorothy Sayers, creator of the
detective Lord Peter Wimsey, had been one of Allen Lane’s first ten authors.
Later, she translated Dante’s Inferno, to be published by Penguin in 1949
(see p.94). She objected to three asterisks on her title page, and wrote to
Tschichold about it - daring lady. He wrote back: ‘...As you already know, I
have not followed your suggestion to take out the little asterisks...In your
letter you express the opinion that no self-respecting title page should ever
carry an asterisk. I wonder where you learnt this, but in any case it is the
master who establishes the rules and not the pupil, and the master is
permitted to break the rules, even his own. These asterisks are necessary in
order to emphasize the centre of the composition, to avoid incoherence and
to establish a suitable interruption between the three upper parts. The third
asterisk is necessary to complete the shape of the upper half.’

Sayers replied by return of post: ‘...The objection to the asterisks and the
three-em rule as ornament is, I think, that they are not primarily designed to
fulfil this function, but to perform other duties (such as punctuation and so
forth), and therefore have a weak and improvised appearance when set to do
a job for which they were not intended.’ Tschichold replied: ‘I have not used
the asterisk in this instance to disguise an error in proportion. It is of real
importance in the construction of my title, and to relinquish the asterisk is to
weaken its perfection... we shall leave the title as it is.’ She replied: ‘It’s quite
all right. I told Mr Overton that if you felt passionate about your little

asterisks I didn’t really mind; and the editor says you may have them, so
everything in the garden is lovely. If anyone cavils at them, I shall explain
that they are deeply symbolical and refer to threefold repetition of the word
stelle, one at the end of each cantica!’ Tschichold answered: ‘Thank you for
your letter. Your book is now on the point of being returned to the printers,
and I hope when you see the finished result you will be reconciled to my
obstinacy.’

* * *

Tschichold’s achievement at Penguin Books was unique. Probably no other
man in the world at that time could have achieved what he did. It required a
tireless attention to detail, an unshakable belief in the rightness of his own
principles, an ability to systematise and to remain consistently faithful to the
systems, and a thick skin.

He had done more, in three years, to improve the standards of British book
production than any other single book designer had ever done. Although he
laid down standards for every detail of Penguin layout (for numerous
different series) that were needed, he never standardised either the typeface
or the layout of title pages. Every book was treated as a separate design
problem and was given a solution that fitted that particular text. The one
thing that Tschichold found excellent in British printing was the range of
monotype typefaces planned by Morison.

In December 1949 Tschichold returned to Switzerland, leaving behind his
monument in every bookshop in the world that sold British books - for
Penguins, now produced in quantities of more than fifteen million books a
year, would have been in every one.

Back in Switzerland, Tschichold resumed design work for various Swiss and
German publishers. In 1954 he was asked to become head of the Munich
Academy of Graphic Arts (from which he had been expelled in 1933) but
this would have meant returning to live in Germany, and he declined.

In 1955 he became consultant to the large pharmaceutical firm of
F. Hoffman-La Roche in Basel, and designed their entire range of books,
labels, advertisements and stationery. This included a series of booklets
explaining the uses of new drugs to the medical profession, in German,
French and/or English, illustrated with photographs and line drawings often